Genesis 47:3

3 “What is your occupation?” Pharaoh asked Joseph’s brothers. “Your servants are shepherds,” they replied, “both we and our fathers.”

Genesis 47:3 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 47:3

And Pharaoh said unto his brethren, what [is] your occupation?
&c.] Which is the question he had told his brethren beforehand would be asked them, and prepared them to give an answer to it, ( Genesis 46:33 Genesis 46:34 ) ; which was perhaps an usual question Pharaoh asked of persons that came to settle in his dominions, that he might have no idle vagrants there, and that he might know of what advantage they were like to be of in his kingdom, and might dispose of them accordingly:

and they said unto Pharaoh, thy servants [are] shepherds, both we
[and] also our fathers;
see ( Genesis 46:34 ) .

Genesis 47:3 In-Context

1 So Joseph went and told Pharaoh: “My father and my brothers, with their flocks and herds and all they own, have come from the land of Canaan and are now in Goshen.”

2 And he chose five of his brothers and presented them before Pharaoh.

3 “What is your occupation?” Pharaoh asked Joseph’s brothers. “Your servants are shepherds,” they replied, “both we and our fathers.”

4 Then they said to Pharaoh, “We have come to live in the land for a time, because there is no pasture for the flocks of your servants, since the famine in the land of Canaan has been severe. So now, please allow your servants to settle in the land of Goshen.”

5 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Now that your father and brothers have come to you,